Interview for Calico Skies Radio

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This is an interview with Argentine graphic designer Santiago Pozzi, the artist behind the “Paul McCartney Rocks The Bowery” poster, created to promote Paul McCartney’s three impromptu concerts at The Bowery Ballroom in New York City in February 2025.

The interview was recorded by Calico Skies Radio – Puro McCartney Podcast. The English-translated transcript is provided courtesy of Calico Skies Radio – Puro McCartney Podcast.

Have you realized everything that happened?

Santiago Pozzi: I’m still falling or rather enjoying it. The truth is that it’s an opportunity that I didn’t expect. I can only be grateful for this situation.

You are privileged. Few people get to see Paul McCartney. How did this opportunity to make the poster for these concerts that nobody expected come about?

The background is always a bit more boring or bureaucratic. I have been working for more than 15 years making poster designs for official merchandising for national or international artists. This type of product, in the United States, is called Gift Posters, like concert posters and is used specifically for merch. They are produced in silkscreens, as well as for t-shirts for a show and are generally in the kiosk selling the show, or in online stores. I have already worked for concerts by Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Hermanos Gutiérrez, Jack White. I did a show for Litto Nebbia and I did an illustration for Charly García for the cover of a book that became very popular, which I did for Editorial Gourmet. I often receive photos of tattoos with that illustration. And for this occasion, the different thing is that the poster I made was for merch, but they used it to promote the show. Generally, what I do is not published on the artist’s networks. It is for Paul and it is a luxury. For most people, the music of The Beatles is part of everyone’s culture, since they were kids and I love Paul’s music from all his eras. It is an honor.

Speaking of all the eras, and Paul has many, there are three McCartneys on the poster

When I was thinking about what kind of concept I was going to use in the illustration… sometimes it’s hard to generate an image to represent a piece of music. There are so many possible images, how to choose one, and at the same time how to find one. I came up with the idea of a silhouette inside another. So you have a silhouette with the Beatles bob, another with longer hair, a moustache, more associated with Wings, and another with him more current, more mature. And I put in some elements of his songs or climates and colors.

Here at Calico Skies Radio, we are more into defending and listening to Paul’s music as a soloist, and not so much to The Beatles. That you had a reference to Wings is like a kind of medal, and we thank you for it. Did we have to do any retouching for the Bowery Ballroom?

Originally the poster had, in the middle silhouette, a curved road (The Long And Winding Road), which went towards the horizon and went to the sun, in reference to I’ll Follow The Sun, but since they were going to use it for the Bowery, in New York, they asked me to add some elements referring to the city. So it ended up being a bit touristy. I preferred the sun, because it was more universal, but it still turned out well.

I read somewhere that you had a favorite book, The Illustrated Songs of The Beatles, by Alan Aldridge. Maybe it was an influence for this work?

Yes, totally. I found that book in a bookstore in Miramar, when I was 17. I must have bought it for 15 pesos. In the issues from that time, but it was very cheap. There was a whole pile and I didn’t know if I should buy them all. There is a lot of that influence in this poster.

Will the poster be for sale in Argentina?

It will be printed using silkscreen printing, which is a craft technique, which is printed one ink at a time. And I will do a pre-sale on my networks. Whoever wants to have it and buy it in poster size, printed in the best quality, can buy it in Buenos Aires, with shipping to the entire country.

You have to have it, even to have it as a t-shirt…

You buy a t-shirt and it may last you three years. But a silkscreen lasts a lifetime. And you will see it every day in your house. Those images, with those colors, are there to cheer you up every time you see it.

Congratulations and hopefully one day you will receive a congratulatory message from Paul himself…

Hopefully, hopefully. But even with this, it is already a lot.

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